Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

When the Bible Reads the Newspaper

• SMC preachers

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0:00 | 14:41

One of the best known quotes about preaching has been attributed to theologian, Karl Barth. Preachers must preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. What to do when the newspaper seems to get heavier and heavier with every passing day? As the U.S. seems to descend further and further into a lawless, violent police state, terrorizing and killing its own citizens, ripping apart its families, and wreaking genocidal and military havoc around the world. On this first Sunday of Epiphany, Pastor Megan notices some things from the story of the Magi in Matthew 2: noncooperation with ill-intentioned and violent kings; God is a refugee. And then notices a couple of things from the water to wine story of the wedding at Cana from John 2: Jesus resists taking action but comes to realize that his time has indeed come to act; Jesus needs the servants as his human companions and co-creators of the miracle the world needs. And she wonders how these Epiphany stories from our Bible might read our current newspapers…?

Sermon begins at minute marker 2:20

John 2.1-11

Resources:

  • BibleWorm podcast: Episode 721 - Water into Wine, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.
  • Karl Barth (1886-1968), Swiss-German Christian theologian. “[Barth] is considered…to be one of the greatest thinkers within the history of the Christian tradition. Barth gave new impulses to Protestant theology during a critical phase, reshaping it fundamentally toward a systematic theology that had to cope with the grim realities of the 20th century. As the principal author of “The Barmen Declaration,” he was the intellectual leader of the German Confessing Church, the Protestant group that resisted the Third Reich.”
  • Matthew 2: story of the Magi & the holy family’s flight into Egypt
  • Ezekiel 37: story of the valley of dry bones, and God instructing Ezekiel to prophesy to the four winds and then to prophesy to the bones
  • Prayer: Jesus, amplify the good; disrupt the plans of the evil; show me my place; Amen.
  • Image: [As preachers,] “we must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Quote / sentiment famously attributed to theologian, Karl Barth.